Death by GPS

[Ratkity]

Never under-estimate the stupidity of people! The city of San Antonio started charging people for flood road rescues in the 90's when it depleted their budget. Dumb people thought they could get across flash flooded roads and would get swept down the river. Oiy!

I'm glad Slo's city is charging people for rescue because of GPS mistakes.

Hugs,
Ratkity

[2bits]

People sometimes love to let someone or something else make their decisions for them. GPS can be useful, I think I would only turn on a GPS unit IF I got lost, but I don't want anything guiding me around the whole time. I am more of a do it yourself kind of guy. I look up where I want to go, and draw my own map on a piece of paper, and bring a "real" map with me of course just in case there is an issue.

I think it is hilarious when I see people have this GPS screen suctioned almost right in front of their face, and they are on the freeway they take to work every day.

No offense to the users of GPS, just my observations along my own personal bent.

[High Desert]

People sometimes love to let someone or something else make their decisions for them.

I think it is hilarious when I see people have this GPS screen suctioned almost right in front of their face, and they are on the freeway they take to work every day.

Makes you wonder how they ever got around before the GPS was invented doesn't it? Were that many people hopelessly lost all the time?

[Artificer]

On the other hand...

There we were. Pulled out of the train museum in NM and on to the road towards our destination. After driving a few miles, I glanced at the laptop with the GPS attached, and asked... why is the arrow pointing west? We were supposed to be heading south, southeast. After several hours in the museum, we had forgotten that the 100' of road to the museum was the proper road, not the entrance. Just a case of the GPS being useful.

We use the atlas mostly, since its not terribly convenient to have the laptop fired up all the time. Its main use is: NOW where are we?

I still think people are idiots for relying on it, but it can be geat tool.

Michael

[High Desert]

I still think people are idiots for relying on it, but it can be geat tool.

Michael

I think that is the real point. It's a tool, not an alternate brain.

[eamarquardt]

Simply put, you gotta pay attention to all the "data". When flying "instruments" you have to "trust your instuments" not your "gut feelings", PERIOD. However, you have more than one instrument and if there are "discrepancies" you have to figure it out. Same with GPS.

I use a PC based GPS to garage sale almost every weekend. I can hit as many as 50 sales between 0730 and 1200. Couldn't do it without the GPS (even a human navigator can't do nearly as effectively and as quickly what the GPS program can do). Even so, it sometimes does crazy things but by paying attention I can tweak it to get it back on track.

Technology is great but not a substitute for human intelligence.

Cheers,

Gus

[JuneBug]

In Colorado, citizens and visitors can buy a Colorado Outdoor Recreation Search and Rescue (CORSAR) Card

Why Buy a CORSAR Card?
Colorado residents and visitors are well served by dedicated volunteer search and rescue teams, but mission costs are often in the thousands of dollars. By purchasing a CORSAR card you are contributing to the Search and Rescue Fund, which will reimburse these teams for costs incurred in your search and rescue. Funds remaining at the end of the year are used to help pay for training and equipment for these teams. Anyone with a current hunting/fishing license, or boat, snowmobile, ATV registration is already covered by the fund.

The CORSAR Card Is Not Insurance
The card is not insurance and does not reimburse individuals nor does it pay for medical transport. Medical transport includes helicopter flights or ground ambulance. If aircraft are used as a search vehicle, those costs are reimbursed by the fund. If the aircraft becomes a medical transport due to a medical emergency, the medical portion of the transport is not covered.

Best deal around:
1 year $3
5 years $12

I renewed mine when we were passing through Colorado last year.

[Boodro]

Hey Slowcowboy, seems like there is a BIG money making opportunity there in Wyoming! ( read entrepreneur) If it is happening like you say it is.Maybe start a business for GPS Believers. They can call you when they get lost & all you have to do is tell them go out the same way you came in!!! Maybe charge 50 bucks a call. If you have to go get them ,,,well the sky is the limit then! Like Forrest Gump said" Stupid is , stupid does!" You can't fix stupid , but theres nothing saying you can't charge em! Good luck SLow!!

[8ball_99]

Sounds like Wyoming is just a bad place to visit unless you have a tour guide!!!


As far as GPSs go.. Imo they are awesome.. They aren't great at doing long distance routes. They tend to want to just take you the shortest route even if it takes much longer.. They are great for getting you around town or country roads where signs might be few and far in between. As far as paper maps IMO they aren't really any better. I can get on my GPS and look at the map zoom in, zoom out ect.. You don't have to just plug in a address and go.. Its pretty easy to make your own route. Infact any time we take a trip thats exactly what I do.. I plug the gps into my laptop and plan my own route then save it to the gps.. You can do the same thing on the GPS its just a smaller screen. When pulling a larger trailer its awesome to know exactly how far your turn is even if you know where you going..

We also off road quite a bit. Thats the only reason we go camping its to ride SxSs with friends.. I even have a GPS in my RZR loaded with topo maps.. Works great for getting an idea of elevation changes on the trails and worse case I can track back to the truck if we get lost...

[pete42]

heck. I would not mind getting lost by gps now. hide out intill this mess of a recesson depersion gets over and life is back to normal.

maybee when they all find me there will be a job normal gas price and things will be like the good old days!!!!!!

slowcowboy I would give anything to go back in time to the 1980s when I was a kid.

back to the 80's when he was a kid ?
back in the 80's I was already in my 40's !
still a kid

pete

[Maverick71]

Howdy,

I too read the story of these people losing their way in northern Nevada. There are a lot of unanswered questions regarding their fatal trip.

Last Christmas, I received an upscale TomTom GPS from my children. I took it somewhat of an insult as to my age as if I were becoming senile. After all I have traveled extensively in all 50 states during the six years GM ran me ragged as a locomotive tech rep.

I have experimented with the GPS in the state of Texas, a country within a state and found that the best feature is apprising one to move to the exit lane long before reaching the exit. While towing my travel trailer with standard rear view mirrors, this is a great help.

When I travel in Wyoming, I never fear getting lost because there are so few roads in that state. I will put a real tomtom in the trunk along with a blanket and some matches so that if need be, I can communicate with the American Indians who always know where they are without a TomTom.

Take care,
Maury

[vreihen]

I live on a dead end road that up until 35 years ago used to be a through road that bypassed two local villages. Both paper and online maps show the old roads that now pass through a state forest, but they are blocked and not passable by anyone but hikers. Long story short, we have a tractor-trailer get lost on our street every few months, and I feel bad for the drivers who miss the dead end sign and have to back up an 18-wheeler the half mile back to the main road because there's not even a cul-de-sac at the end for them to turn around. No GPS that I've owned or online map site has ever tried to give me directions to turn left out of my driveway, so I can only assume that these errors are being made by people with paper maps and not GPS units.....

[Woodstramp]

Personally, I love GPS. I will have one in my cars until the GPS satelites fall from the sky. Then when they do fall from the sky I'll just pretend my GPS units will still work with a tear in my eye.

I think that the "GPS got me stuck in the boonies" stories happen because folks put total trust in a piece of equipment without knowing how to actually use them properly. "Hey, I just bought me an Abrams tank....let's take her for a spin!"

On the two Garmin Nuvis I have there are two main road navigation calculation modes that the user can set up. "Faster Time", "Shortest Distance". The "shorter distance" setting is probably what is putting these folks out in the middle of a forestry road. If the GPS sees "any" kind of road in memory it will calculate a route that way. "Faster Time" will keep you on larger (paved) roadways.

There will also be mistakes with the map data from time to time. You have to consider that most map data was aquired from the US government. They've never made a boo-boo, have they.

Also. Most of the new Garmin car units have a few life saving features. One would be the ability to record "trails" or "tracks'. If the tracking is turned on the GPS records a breadcrumb trail of everywhere you've been. Say a route has taken you deep into national forest and it's looking rough? Just folow your breadcrumbs back out and try another route. Another nice feature is "Where AM I". If you are stuck and can get emergency services on the phone, that feature will allow you to tell SAR your exact coordinates.

[JuneBug]

thanks so much for clarifying this aspect of the Nuvi, which is what we have. I'll ask my husband which setting he uses. If it is "shortest distance" that may have been what caused our problems!

[pete42]

The only problem I can remember having was I had my Nuvi set "no-u-turns" while in alabama we were looking for a certain restaurant after a 5 mile all right turn trip the restaurant was right behind us from where we started If I had looked in rear view mirrow I could have seen the sign. yes I did turn off the "no u-turn" feature.